Florida police to monitor cars driving near prostitution areas

Police in Florida have begun using surveillance methods to prevent prostitution by recording license plate information from cars that drive through areas frequented by sex workers and sending a letter to that individual’s home as a possible deterrent.

Starting this week, the Sanford Police Department - perhaps best
known for its involvement in the recent George Zimmerman case -
will employ a “Dear John” initiative to stop suspect “Johns” from
hiring prostitutes. Automated license plate readers on patrol
cars will be used to record suspects’ vehicles, according to the
Orlando Sentinel.

The ensuing letter will include a picture of the vehicle prowling
the streets late at night with a close-up image of the license
plate and include reminders about the potential for sexually
transmitted diseases. Police spokeswoman Shannon Cordingly told
reporters the effort will discourage prostitution “by
stripping away the anonymity of the exchange” under the
watchful eye of a veteran patrolman.

“We’re not going to be generating letters for every vehicle
that drives by slow or circles,” Cordingly said.
“Obviously, the officer has common sense to know this
vehicle’s actually looking for a prostitute or they happen to be
lost.”

Authorities speaking to the media seemed to assume that someone’s
mere presence near illegal activity presumes their guilt.

“If you’re loitering in the city at four or five o’clock in
the morning or three o’clock in the morning after the bars let
out and you’re in some of these neighborhoods and you’re in and
out, in and out, in and out, yeah, that would kind of flag
it,” said Sanford police Lieutenant Joe Santiago, one of the
effort’s most vocal proponents.

While similar programs have already been launched in other areas
of the US, civil liberties advocates have asserted that such a
policy infringes on individual privacy rights.

Florida criminal defense attorney Richard Hornsby told the
Sentinel that police should expect consequences if they wrongly
target someone who only appears to be searching for a prostitute.
By committing such a misidentification, police would “likely
expose themselves to civil liberty complaints should they send
these notices to innocent persons and inadvertently cause marital
disruption.”

“If they have sufficient evidence to believe a person is ‘not
lost, but in fact, circling the block looking for a prostitute,’
then they have a sufficient basis to make an investigative
detention for the crime of solicitation of prostitution,”
Hornsby continued.

The police department said that the city attorney had reviewed
the Dear John program and approved it. The initiative was
inspired by similar ones in Baltimore, Maryland, Oakland,
California, and roughly 40 other cities.